UVA Law Students Taking Questions Forum

[johansantana21]

UVA students agreeing on how douchetastic UVA students are.

[StanleyF]

To me, one of the great benefits of UVa is that it is big enough that you can be whatever kind of law student you want to be. If you want to do nothing but study and chase good grades, you can do that. If you want to pretend (and party) like law school is three more years of undergrad, you can do that, too. If you want to do tons of pro bono work while in law school, Charlottesville has tons of options for you. If you want to play softball and cornhole like you're trying to go pro, lots of people will be happy to join you. The class is big enough that you are going to find people who share your approach to law school. And despite some of the posts on this board, I think UVa students accept that others are taking a different approach, and everyone seems to get along just fine.

In terms of Cornell v. UVa, to me it seems like no contest, but here are some of the calculations that I used when making exactly this choice: First, let's be honest, rankings may be bullshit, but they seem to matter to employers, and UVa consistently ranks in the top 10; Cornell does not. Second, UVa OGI (or OCI to the rest of the world) draws hundreds of employers from all over the country -- most come from NYC and DC, but a lot come form California, Chicago and Boston, too. Cornell has to hold its "O"CI in New York City to get its students in front of employers. Third, if you are at all interested in clerking, UVa places a much higher percentage of its graduates in clerkships than Cornell; . http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... s-rankings

For general quality of life, I think Ithaca and Charlottesville are pretty close. Both are kind of isolated, both are places where you would be happier with a car, and both are completely college towns. If you like snow, Ithaca obviously has the edge. If you don't like snow, then UVa wins. Ithaca=bus trips to NYC; Charlottesville=train rides to D.C.

[booboo]

Can we define "nerd" here?

Every law student ever. Ever.

[Morgan12Oak]

UVA students agreeing on how douchetastic UVA students are.

Sorry bro, T14 students only here.

[005618502]

Thanks, wackjickham, for a solid point.

[005618502]

Can we define "nerd" here?

Every law student ever. Ever.

Being smart does not equate to being a nerd. I have met a couple UVA law students (on my visit and a couple who clerked at the firm i am at) and they were not what I consider "nerds" They were smart and seemed to work hard, but also seemed pretty cool and social.

Maybe I think of something different when I think of "nerds" I think of them as loving to play computer games/video games, reading the harry potter series 10 times, would rather play warcraft inside than capture the flag outside as a kid.

[chem]

LMAO exactly. I'm sorry but just because you hit a home run in slow pitch soft-ball off some kid who was captain of the chess club at Duke, even though you get stapled under 135 on the bench and it takes you longer to run the 40 than my 98 Gateway takes to boot up, doesn't mean you're an "athlete".

A guy who can't bench 135 is not blasting them to the road at Copeley or over the fence at The Park, dude. Every dude crushing them is fairly well built and knows how to swing a bat.

Also, what's up with making fun of weak/slow/unathletic people? That's not cool bro. We're all failed athletes, just different levels of NOT-GOOD-ENOUGH-FOR-THE-PROS-SO-NO-ONE-CARES-HOW-ATHLETIC-WE-THINK-WE-ARE.

Idk about Bruce Wayne, but I never intended to make fun of weak/slow/unathletic ppl. I guess I'm just calling-out the bunch of guys at the law school who are cocky as shit because of stuff that happens in "law school world". You're not some awesome athlete because you're good at law school softball, and you're also not some crazy party bro because you go to law school parties. Relatively, yeah that may be the case. But on the whole, it's a joke. I've never been to a law school party that was even close to as crazy as a frat party at my old state school. So it's just kind of funny for me to hear ppl talk about how crazy some law school party was or how athletic some dude is because he is good at softball.

Listen, I think basically everyone here is a nerd, you basically had to be to get in, and there's nothing wrong with that. I also think though that some ppl come into law school and treat it as the second go-around of college. Like they were a nerd in UG, and saw all these fratty/jocks/bros and now they have a chance to imitate them, because now there are ppl who are even nerdier than them. It just gets irritating.

I went to a big ass public in TX. This is how our whole frat system was. A ton of nerdy ass kids who had no friends in high school and couldnt believe they could just pay 4 grand a semester and automatically have friends. Whole shitton of losers thinking they were the shit. Couldnt stand frat [homophobic language redacted]
/rant

WOAH. Is that true? I go to a small school, granted, but my dues are $500 a semester

[005618502]

WOAH. Is that true? I go to a small school, granted, but my dues are $500 a semester

Not even joking. Most expensive frat was 4,200 a semester (about the same as tuition)

[jawsthegreat]

Can we define "nerd" here?

Every law student ever. Ever.

Being smart does not equate to being a nerd. I have met a couple UVA law students (on my visit and a couple who clerked at the firm i am at) and they were not what I consider "nerds" They were smart and seemed to work hard, but also seemed pretty cool and social.

Maybe I think of something different when I think of "nerds" I think of them as loving to play computer games/video games, reading the harry potter series 10 times, would rather play warcraft inside than capture the flag outside as a kid. That or any frat dude from my UG haha

Smart, not nerd=desertlaw

[johansantana21]

UVA students agreeing on how douchetastic UVA students are.

Sorry bro, T14 students only here.

Good thing I go to a T14.

[jawsthegreat]

The best thing about UVa, is that if you wanted to ignore all us douchebags arguing, you wouldn't even know we existed. Plus, Cornell is cold as fuck.

[jawsthegreat]

[wackjickham]

To me, one of the great benefits of UVa is that it is big enough that you can be whatever kind of law student you want to be. If you want to do nothing but study and chase good grades, you can do that. If you want to pretend (and party) like law school is three more years of undergrad, you can do that, too. If you want to do tons of pro bono work while in law school, Charlottesville has tons of options for you. If you want to play softball and cornhole like you're trying to go pro, lots of people will be happy to join you. The class is big enough that you are going to find people who share your approach to law school. And despite some of the posts on this board, I think UVa students accept that others are taking a different approach, and everyone seems to get along just fine.

In terms of Cornell v. UVa, to me it seems like no contest, but here are some of the calculations that I used when making exactly this choice: First, let's be honest, rankings may be bullshit, but they seem to matter to employers, and UVa consistently ranks in the top 10; Cornell does not. Second, UVa OGI (or OCI to the rest of the world) draws hundreds of employers from all over the country -- most come from NYC and DC, but a lot come form California, Chicago and Boston, too. Cornell has to hold its "O"CI in New York City to get its students in front of employers. Third, if you are at all interested in clerking, UVa places a much higher percentage of its graduates in clerkships than Cornell; . http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... s-rankings

For general quality of life, I think Ithaca and Charlottesville are pretty close. Both are kind of isolated, both are places where you would be happier with a car, and both are completely college towns. If you like snow, Ithaca obviously has the edge. If you don't like snow, then UVa wins. Ithaca=bus trips to NYC; Charlottesville=train rides to D.C.

This person has the only rational response to this question in the entire thread. I rarely post here for obvious reasons, but I find it sad that in a thread where the original question was "Should I come to UVA or not?" so many students immediately turn on each other and start name-calling. What a miserable impression to give a prospective student.

I don't look down on the lifestyle of any person at this school, and I would expect other students to return the favor. /thread

[thesealocust]

First, as somebody who has attended both universities, I can't urge you enough to never set foot in Ithaca for any reason.

Second,

Smart, not nerd=desertlaw

I think we can all agree on that.

[pjo]

To me, one of the great benefits of UVa is that it is big enough that you can be whatever kind of law student you want to be. If you want to do nothing but study and chase good grades, you can do that. If you want to pretend (and party) like law school is three more years of undergrad, you can do that, too. If you want to do tons of pro bono work while in law school, Charlottesville has tons of options for you. If you want to play softball and cornhole like you're trying to go pro, lots of people will be happy to join you. The class is big enough that you are going to find people who share your approach to law school. And despite some of the posts on this board, I think UVa students accept that others are taking a different approach, and everyone seems to get along just fine.

In terms of Cornell v. UVa, to me it seems like no contest, but here are some of the calculations that I used when making exactly this choice: First, let's be honest, rankings may be bullshit, but they seem to matter to employers, and UVa consistently ranks in the top 10; Cornell does not. Second, UVa OGI (or OCI to the rest of the world) draws hundreds of employers from all over the country -- most come from NYC and DC, but a lot come form California, Chicago and Boston, too. Cornell has to hold its "O"CI in New York City to get its students in front of employers. Third, if you are at all interested in clerking, UVa places a much higher percentage of its graduates in clerkships than Cornell; . http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... s-rankings

For general quality of life, I think Ithaca and Charlottesville are pretty close. Both are kind of isolated, both are places where you would be happier with a car, and both are completely college towns. If you like snow, Ithaca obviously has the edge. If you don't like snow, then UVa wins. Ithaca=bus trips to NYC; Charlottesville=train rides to D.C.

This person has the only rational response to this question in the entire thread. I rarely post here for obvious reasons, but I find it sad that in a thread where the original question was "Should I come to UVA or not?" so many students immediately turn on each other and start name-calling. What a miserable impression to give a prospective student.

I don't look down on the lifestyle of any person at this school, and I would expect other students to return the favor. /thread

I agree with what you and StanleyF said for the most part, but law school is also not like UG where there are a ton of ppl (even at a small school) and you're all over campus. Rather, there's only about 950 ppl here, and you're all in the same building for classes. Most ppl also live in the same apartment complexes, and everyone tends to go to the same bars/parties. So sure, you can do what you want and find ppl that are like you and whatnot, but it's really not possible to completely avoid certain ppl or groups of ppl. Especially when said group(s) make it a point to "make their awesome presence known" at every event. OP asked about UVA, and given this is the one thing I think is distinct to UVA (and also that it's the only thing I really don't like about the school), I thought it was reasonable to bring up. And I'm not looking "down" on anyone's lifestyle. If you want to be an asshole, that's fine, I really don't care. However, I do care when your being an ass begins to affect me (like my gym example above).

I should also say though, that from my talks with friends at other schools, even though UVa may have more obnoxious bro type ppl, we definitely have less hardcore in-your-face gunners. Every school has obnoxious ppl, I guess they just take different forms. You're going to have the same type of ppl (attitude wise) at Cornell or any other T14.

[paulinaporizkova]

frat [homophobic language redacted]

-________________-

[Morgan12Oak]

Best thing about UVA law is that we don't have people attending here who feel the need to troll other peoples law schools TLS pages simply in order to see what life would be like if they attended a law school they enjoyed.

[RVP11]

Lots of hate going on in here: Non-bros hating on bros. Bros hating on non-bros. Bros who were frat bros in college hating on bros they think are pretending to be frat bros in law school. Small bros hating on big bros. Big bros hating on small bros who can't bench 135.

My message to prospective 1Ls is this: don't come into the law school with preconceived notions about what any UVA Law students are like. If you're worried about your comfort level around "bros", then I don't know what to say...maybe don't go to Tunlaw/Thomson/Lewis Mountain parties? But don't adopt the mentality that you're Danny LaRusso, and NGSL & co are Cobra Kai...because there's no one hot enough to play Elisabeth Shue's character.

[berkeleykel06]

Maybe I think of something different when I think of "nerds" I think of them as loving to play computer games/video games, reading the harry potter series 10 times, would rather play warcraft inside than capture the flag outside as a kid.

Damn it.

[A Swift]

Smart, not nerd=desertlaw

I think we can all agree on that.

Agree. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDnHgN0cCPY




Edit: Reversed my initial conclusion after additional research.

[desertlaw]

Thanks for outing my previous life.

[jawsthegreat]

Smart, not nerd=desertlaw

I think we can all agree on that.

Agree. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDnHgN0cCPY




Edit: Reversed my initial conclusion after additional research.

That sound you just heard was my head exploding

[005618502]

Smart, not nerd=desertlaw

I think we can all agree on that.

Agree. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDnHgN0cCPY




Edit: Reversed my initial conclusion after additional research.

Seriously awesome. Even the movie quality is top notch lol

[desertlaw]

Smart, not nerd=desertlaw

I think we can all agree on that.

Agree. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDnHgN0cCPY




Edit: Reversed my initial conclusion after additional research.

Seriously awesome. Even the movie quality is top notch lol

Movie was made by friend who now owns a production company. We were both former drummers. But I turned down BigDrums for BigLaw.

[005618502]

Seriously awesome. Even the movie quality is top notch lol

Movie was made by friend who now owns a production company. We were both former drummers. But I turned down BigDrums for BigLaw.

Oh so thats actually you and a buddy? Haha pretty awesome. I never had any kind of musical talent. I lend that to my parents making me do recorder and not letting me do Violin in elementary though, lol